VIDEO: Sheffield Wednesday - Cup is a serious matter for Carlos

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Liam Hoden

Published:05:59Updated:09:08Tuesday 25 August 2015

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When the Sheffield Wednesday team is announced this evening you can be sure it will feature the players who take the Capital One Cup most seriously.

Head coach Carlos Carvalhal has made such a promise as he prepares for his side to welcome League Two outfit Oxford United to Hillsborough.

Carlos Carvalhal

The Us are unbeaten so far this season and thumped Brentford 4-0 to set up tonight’s trip to S6 for the second round.

And Carvalhal believes only full focus will do from the Owls if they are to avoid a similar fate to that of their Championship rivals.

“I believe it is universal for all games that teams in theory, and probably in practice, are better if they play at 100 per cent,” the Portuguese told the Star.

“They have more big chances to win matches.

Lewis McGugan is likely to return for the Owls tonight

“Sometimes the problem is that the focus on the match is not at 100 per cent.

“Our plan, and we did it for the Mansfield game, is that we have it in mind to use the players that have a special focus on these matches.

“They take them seriously, more seriously than the others.

“And we will try to put in the players that we believe will take the match very seriously.

“There are surprises in cups and special surprises come when you are sleeping.

“If you are alert, with the full energy and you want to do your best, you have the best chance.

“I will put out the best team I have in this moment. This is not just the best players, but the ones I understand will be best to try to win this game.

“This will be the spirit for the game and all the games we have.”

It seems likely Carvalhal will make changes for tonight’s clash given his tendencies to regularly rotate his squad.

Lewis McGugan looks set to return to the squad after missing the trip to Leeds United due to his wife giving birth on Friday.

And Carvalhal will this morning hear reports on the fitness of Keiren Westwood, Glenn Loovens and Lucas Joao.

While personnel may indeed be different, Carvalhal is looking for further progress from his side tonight in the cup.

The Portuguese says he was pleased with the all round performance the Owls put in at Leeds United on Saturday, particularly in the first half.

And he wants to see more of his instructions implemented against Oxford tonight as part of his work in progress.

He said: “At Leeds, we did better with the alternates.

“Sometimes we played deep, sometimes we played the ball long to Nuhiu, sometimes we played the ball more on the field and moved the ball. Leeds had some problems, especially in the first half to move the ball.

“Some of the mistakes we made against Reading and Ipswich, we corrected and we did better in Leeds.

“Was everything perfect at Leeds? Of course not.

“We started to miss the capacity to press the opponent up, our own team dropped and we had some problems.

“We believe with more options, and we are missing some important players for the team, that we will be stronger and ready to give answers to the problems we are having in our team.”

Carvalhal is expecting a tough test from Michael Appleton’s Oxford.

He said: “This match will not be easy. The opponents have qualities.

“We respect the opponent because we no this is not an easy opponent. It will be a hard match to us.

“We want to do our best to try to continue in this competition.

“Oxford beat Brentford 4-0 which is a sign we must be alert and have 100 per cent concentration.

“Being from a lower league, they have some weak points and some strong points.

“Let us see if our strong points will damage them.

“We are at Hillsborough with our fans so we believe we will have a positive atmosphere which we will need for this game.”